Robert Downey Jr. Officially Signs on for The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3

From the sounds of it, “the Marvel way” just took a major backseat to “the box office gold way”, as Marvel itself has reported that it has come to terms with “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. to reprise ol shellhead in not only Joss Whedon’s upcoming 2015-set “The Avengers 2″, but he’s also play the role again whenever they get around to making “The Avengers 3″.

No terms of the deal were disclosed, but let’s face it, it probably involves a lot of money. Or actually, a lot of back-end participation on the part of Mr. Downey for those two movies, similar to how his deals for his last two Marvel movies (“Iron Man 3″ and “The Avengers”) were hammered out.

As you’ll recall, Downey was said to have pocketed at least $50 million thanks to the success of “The Avengers” (though some numbers have it being even higher than that), and with his “Iron Man 3″ already a billion-dollar film (about $300 million short of “The Avengers'” final tally), you can bet he made even more on the sequel. And why shouldn’t he? The guy IS Iron Man, and he basically carried that movie. God knows no one paid good money to see a shirtless, fire-breathing Guy Pearce.

With Downey’s deal in place, it makes you wonder how much Marvel will be dishing out to the rest of the film’s cast. Previous reports have guys like Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Johansson, and Evans going all-in with Downey, and whatever deal he makes expected to have a big impact on how they negotiate theirs.

Which makes you wonder: is this the end of “the Marvel way”?

“The Avengers 2″ is expected to assemble all the superheroes to battle yet another intergalactic menace, though who exactly is being kept in Whedon’s safehouse at the moment. All signs point to Thanos, though, the villain shown at the end of “The Avengers”.

We’ll find out for sure when the sequel opens May 1, 2015, with production set for early next year.